Reply #40: It's been 30 years for me.

[citizen blues]

I was part of the high school graduating class that had our Social Security Survivor Benefits cut by Reagan. 1982. I've been mad as hell ever since.

A cousin of mine recently told me that this is the system we have, like it or not. I told him that he didn't get it. We had better. His response was to tell me that I had insulted his intelligence. So I wrote him a short blog about Glass-Steagull, explaining that it was part of what has been dismantled piece by piece over the last 30 years. I got no response and have largely written him off.

When I was 20 most of my cousins my age were cheering on the Reagan Revolution. But I was different. My mom had died when I was 13 and it left my dad drowning in over 70k in medical bills in 1978. He was a small businessman and ended up liquidating everything he owned, but managed to keep food on the table and save our home in large part thanks to those social security benefits.

When my one great aunt saw the way my cousins were, she told me, "I was born and raised a democrat. Then in 1928 went to college, became a republican and voted for Hoover. KICK ME! (yes, her exact words.) She added that she'd been a democrat and only voted democrat ever since.

She was distraught about my cousins. She said, "It's always been the young people who bring about change. If not them, then who?" She added, "If they're conservative now, where's this country going to be 20, 30 years down the road?" She knew she wouldn't live to see it, but her reason for telling me was to tell me to keep the faith. To hold what I knew, what we both knew was right close to my heart, because she wanted me to be one of those few who would carry the dreams on and pass the torch to the next generation who would care enough to make a difference and help bring about the changes we would so desperately need.

We now have those young people, that next generation Occupying Wall St and other locations all across the country. It's not that my job is done. It's not. Now is the time work to side by side and to march side by side with them. Support them, encourage them, and help them continue to ignite the flame that is now burning across this land in hope of a better tomorrow.

The fight is here. The fight is now. Let it begin.